Thursday, December 2. 2010

It is hard to say where to start this report. Lots of volunteers, and lots of projects seeing work. For those that like the images, my hands were pretty full most of the day so I did not catch all the action. We really need someone to come out just to watch, taking pics along the way.

More Planing

Victor Humphreys and John Faulhaber worked quite awhile preparing the new boards for tongue and groove roofing for the LA ETB. By day's end they had all passed through our planer to finished thickness, and we had carried perhaps 200 gallons of sweet smelling woodchips to the dumpster.

In the background you will see Tim Peters who continues to work on the large doors for the CRT 1797, and he also assembled and glued two new window frames made earlier in the week.

Passenger Windows

Rich Witt continued on new windows for B&M 1094, here laying out the new rails and stiles, doublechecking with the sample of one of the old windows. The stiles had some trim routing done by me, and the remaining layout work was completed to be ready to start the tenons next.

John Nelligan is seen at the right painting a cleaned up radial coupler locking plate for the Charles City Western 300. He also moved on to restoration of one of the arc headlights, while Pete Galayda was cutting and fitting new timber for the remaining 'naked' end deck on the locomotive.

Jack of All Trades

Henry Vincent is the seeming 'go to guy' in the shop for almost anything. He completed installation of a new woodworkers vise adding oak jaw liners. He worked to cleanup up and dispose of a whole lot of trim and wood scraps, and later helped with wiring for the TM D 13 dump motor.

Speaking of which, Jerry Dettloff and John Faulhaber were seen carrying out a completed set of new D 13 roof saddles for installation.

Other items included Victor Humphreys winterizing some nice machinery we are forced to store outdoors over the upcoming winter, his work on two of the window frames and glass for the MILW 01984 caboose, and a few other 'odd jobs'. Every time you turned around progress was apparent.

Roger Kramer brought in some windows from the IC 3996 diner. This heavyweight Pullman built car dates from 1916 and badly needs some TLC. When I said he brought in some windows it is more accurate to say there were a few loose parts from rotted windows. This project could really use some support from your donations as we would like to make a new set of windows for the car to keep the weather out. Just the materials could easily run to $3000, and keep us occupied most of the winter.

You are correct, it has been used as a 'set' for the walk through in the Halloween event. There are some of us who think that is a shame since the car has a lot of potential, and the aftermath of the Halloween event is not removed or the car cleaned up afterward. This is a sure recipe for damage and neglect, an 'I don't care attitude'.
If we acquired the car for preservation, for good reason, there is no reason not to make repairs and do restoration work, however slowly, to see it is not forgotten.
The long hard work of volunteers, and the support of the membership, is what it will take to move forward.
Bob Kutella

Yes, as of today the 3996 is inside Barn 11, thanks in large part to significant donations from members. But if it continues to be used for the Halloween event it will spend two months or more each year outdoors, with many windows with no glass, crumbling frames, rotted wood, and water and the elements getting ever deeper into the car. If you doubt that, come over to the woodshop to see the rotted remains of windows we have to work with as the starting point.
Bob Kutella

E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:

Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

Blog Administration

Find us on Facebook

find us on instagram

Category Tree

Calendar

Quicksearch

Comments

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 07:42Subject to the general caveat that
a 100 year old steam engine can
always develop a last minute fault,
it is planned that #1630 will
operate 8/1 and [...]

CincyCubfan23 about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 06:28Nigel - First, THANK YOU for all
the work you do (and everyone else
at IRM, for that matter)!
I believe I know the answer, but
I'll ask anyhow. [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 16:26Nigel,
All matters of practicality do
indeed have to be taken into
consideration.
That said, as another suggestion,
you may want to talk to your [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 07:38Nathan,
All ideas to be considered and
depends on how this year turns
out.
The big reason we run Thomas over
the route we do is the space [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 19:24Hi Nigel,
Just noticed the comments and plans
for Thomas on this thread and am
intrigued.
It seems like a great idea to have
#1630 push the Percy [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 09:41Andrew,
No. The Thomas train will follow
its normal route.
There will be two event trains, the
Thomas train and the Percy train
(standard DOWT [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sat, 07-25-2015 08:45Peter,
The Thomas days will be
significantly different this year.
There will be a Percy train as well
as a Thomas train and, subject to
the [...]

Peter D. about Steam Department Update June 2015Fri, 07-24-2015 23:51Greetings: Quick question regarding
steam operations...In addition to
Thomas, when would you expect a
steam locomotive to be on the
tacks. Thanks.